How Warby Parker Doubles Down on Disruption and Social Change

Techonomy Video | June 20, 2014, 10:37 AM | Techonomy Exclusive

The technology-driven eyewear company Warby Parker has bigger fish to fry than disrupting an industry and hooking up consumers with hip, inexpensive glasses, although it’s done a pretty good job of that so far. “We started Warby Parker with two goals in mind,” said company co-founder David Gilboa at a recent Venture for America event. The first goal was to transform “a $65 billion industry that had been ripping consumers off for decades … by creating our own vertically integrated brand.” In so doing the company is able to offer glasses for $95 that, according to Gilboa, would normally sell for $500-$600. Warby Parker’s second goal, said Gilboa, is to prove that a for-profit business can have “a massive positive impact in the world.” To achieve its ambition, the company launched a buy-a-pair, give-a-pair program, much like the widely known TOMS shoes campaign. For every pair of glasses sold, Warby Parker works with non-profit partners to distribute a pair to someone in need. In order to build what Gilboa calls “a market-based, sustainable solution that isn’t dependent on donations,” the company’s partners train locals in 36 countries to become entrepreneurs and sell glasses in their local markets to people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them. Gilboa says it’s all part of a vision to address social challenges “so big that we need the smartest people in focusing on those issues, and the best way to do that is by having for-profits work with non-profits and the government in unison.”